Ohio: "Gun shop is 'last thing' E. Cleveland needs, chief says"

[cuchulainn]

from the Plain Dealer

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1068806259245052.xml

Gun shop is 'last thing' E. Cleveland needs, chief says

11/14/03

Thomas Ott
Plain Dealer Reporter

East Cleveland- Opening a gun shop in East Cleveland would be like tossing a lighted match into a box of explosives, as far as Police Chief Patricia Lane is concerned.

Lane wants City Council to ban firearms sales in East Cleveland as a pre-emptive strike against a man who recently asked about operating a gun shop at Euclid Avenue and Noble Road.

"The last thing we need in this city is another gun dealer - legal or illegal," Lane told council members Wednesday.

Gun stores have operated in East Cleveland before, but they have closed.

Lane said a gun shop would bring added worry for an undermanned Police Department kept scrambling by violence.

Police have investigated more than 80 gun-related incidents this year, including seven murders.

Officers have seized 99 guns from a city that covers just three square miles.

Lane declined to identify the man who asked about opening a shop, but she said he told her he was from South Euclid and sold guns from his home.

South Euclid prohibits selling any goods in a residential neighborhood, the city's police chief, Matt Capadona, said.

East Cleveland's laws allow gun shops in commercial areas like Euclid and Noble, Lane said. Dealers need a federal license, approval from the city's Board of Zoning Appeals and the police chief's permission. Lane said she could deny the request but would prefer an all-encompassing ban.

Lane told the man she could not give him an application because the city, which has not dealt with such a request for years, no longer had the necessary forms.

Four of the five City Council members agreed to sponsor legislation outlawing gun stores. The holdout, Councilman O. Mays, said he was not certain a ban was necessary.

He questioned whether a gun shop would cause crime to increase and suggested that background checks required for gun buyers already provide protection.

Mays was shot in the hand in May. He said he was driving slowly on Woodworth Avenue in Cleveland when another man jumped into the car and the two wrestled for the attacker's gun, which went off. The man escaped.

Mays also said he was reluctant to discourage any business from moving into the struggling city. He used the same argument two years ago when a council majority opposed a liquor store that eventually opened at Euclid Avenue and Lee Road.

Lane said that when it comes to new business, the city "can find something better than a gun dealer."

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

[email protected], 1-800-275-5253

© 2003 The Plain Dealer.

 

[foghornl]

The East Cleveland Pief of Cholice needs retirement. E. Cleve does not have enough line officers, so the Citizens NEED arms.

 

[TarpleyG]

Deal with the criminals and leave our guns alone. When will they get it???

GT

 

[Detachment Charlie]

First, I was born in East Cleveland. Used to be a nice, upscale burb. Today, it resembles the opening scenes of Blade Runner. Politically-correct liberal Democrats started to take over in 1970. Within a few short years, it served as the blueprint for Detroit.
In East Cleveland, a gun isn't the answer... Allied Van Lines is.
As for the Plain Dealer's politics, They probably consider participants of the Million Mom March as fellow travelers of the NRA and the Republican party.

 

[Mark Tyson]

This is terrible - this police chief is comparing legal dealers to illegal dealers. The presence of a gun shop isn't going to matter one way or another from a standpoint of availability of criminal firearms.

 

[Langenator]

I wouldn't think that a gun shop would increase gun crime...I would think it would actually be the opposite, at least during business hours, and especially if they attach a range to the place. See if this logic works:

1. Presence of a gun store attracts gun people.
2. Gun people are frequently armed (even in Ohio-don't tell me there aren't folks packing without a permit, or better yet, people carrying openly)
3. Criminals, in general, do not mess with people they think might be armed.

Therefore, criminals will stay *away* from the gun shop.

 

[Standing Wolf]

Opening a gun shop in East Cleveland would be like tossing a lighted match into a box of explosives, as far as Police Chief Patricia Lane is concerned.

Yeah, and besides, commoners don't need guns, anyway.

 

[P95Carry]

Deal with the criminals and leave our guns alone.

Exactly!!! Why oh why do these ''people'' continue to express the hype towards ''guns'' generic .... instead of looking at the whole picture.

Guns in private, law-abiding, ownership ..... are NOT the risk factor, never have been. Deal with the villains ... :banghead: :banghead:

 

[greyhound]

What all y'all said!

plus:

Police have investigated more than 80 gun-related incidents this year, including seven murders.

How many of these incidents were commited with guns legally bought at a gun shop? 1? 2? 0?

These leftist clowns cry long and loud about "bringing businesses back to the inner city", but I guess its only as long as its a PC business.

He used the same argument two years ago when a council majority opposed a liquor store that eventually opened at Euclid Avenue and Lee Road.

Making the assumption (which may be wrong) that the residents are lower income African-Americans, this almost appears to be classist and racist (i.e. poor black folk can't be trusted around booze and guns).

Idiots.

 

[AZRickD]

The person you might wish to contact:

Chief of Police
Patricia Lane
14340 Euclid Ave
East Cleveland, Ohio 44112
(216)681-2379

My letter to the Plain Dealer reporter

Todd and Editor

It's perplexing to some, but not me, that a city government can spend a
few decades micro-managing an economy in a once-safe town, only to have
it degrade to the status of the Bronx in the 1970s.

Now that the Central Planners have achieved Gulag status for East
Cleveland, complete with the lawlessness that stems from arrogant
central planning, Chief Lane says that allowing peaceful and lawful
citizens the ability to defend themselves in this hell hole created by
bureaucrats of her ilk is a bad thing. With open carry now legal (and
protected by a Supreme Court decision) in Ohio, and concealed carry laws
in every state surrounding Ohio, big-govenment leftists like Lane say
that a gun is not the solution. In the short term I would have to
disagree. But if East Cleveland continues with its Soviet-style
politics, the more attractive solution is not arming potential crime
victims. Instead, may I suggest a fully loaded moving van heading east
into Pennsylvania?

Rick
Formerly of Ohio